Equity firms, REITs, & private investors have long been active in Ontario housing markets. A Toronto-based developer made headlines in Canada’s business world last month when it announced its intention to pour $1 Billion into residential housing markets across the country. The plan, as laid out by Core Development Group, is to buy up to 4,000 homes in targeted resale markets where they’ve...
Admitting failure and backtracking is difficult enough for most people, but when’s the last time you heard of a government-affiliated agency tapping out and issuing a public statement outlining their mistakes? It’s a rare occurrence! But that’s exactly what happened earlier this week when Canada’s federal housing agency (CMHC) came out with the news that it was reversing steps...
As we round the corner from June into July and the summer holiday season gets well and truly underway, tradition dictates a seasonal slow-down in real estate markets. At least, that’s how things have usually unfolded along historical lines. But with an anything-but-normal past 18 months, are any of us out there really surprised by this point that sale volumes and prices continue to defy...
Just yesterday our local real estate board released its monthly statistics report for the Kitchener-Waterloo market. The numbers tell a story which will, by now, be familiar to most of you – average sale prices are way up over last year, average time to sell is way down, more listings than ever are being sold each month, and a record number of new listings are appearing every week. Yet...
Each spring, my brokerage (Chestnut Park West) works to compile a buyer-friendly guide to the newest condominium developments that are taking shape around our region. While last year’s guide unfortunately was not able to come together due to the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic and the resultant difficulties in contacting developers and sales centers, I’m happy to report that this year’s...
Plenty can change over the course of a year – something we know all too well looking back from where we stand here in May of 2021. While entire aspects of our daily lives have been upended, with the increasingly rapid pace of vaccine rollouts we’re now able to see a return to normality a little more clearly on the horizon. But on the real estate front, some of the more unexpected aspects...
A few weeks ago, I posted a short article which outlined word of proposed changes to Canada’s mortgage stress-test. In short, our financial sector is beginning to take steps towards shoring up our market against potential hikes in interest rates over the medium term. This is particularly crucial now, as we’re in the midst of a very hot market fuelled in part by historically low interest...
It’s official – the tiny homes movement will soon be coming to a neighbourhood near you. Just this week, Kitchener City Council unanimously approved a motion to allow additional dwelling units to be constructed on qualifying existing lots all across the city. This amendment is expected to affect the status of as many as 57,000 properties in Kitchener, with existing zones of RES-1 through...
Inflation and real estate aren’t two things we often see mentioned in the same sentence. Our notice of the effects of inflation is usually limited to everyday purchases – food, clothing, gas or other household items. After all, it makes sense you’d take note when your weekend grocery run ends up costing you significantly more over time, since it’s something we all do so frequently....
Sometimes extraordinary things can start to feel routine if they happen often enough – a phenomenon many of us in the real estate business might be beginning to experience for ourselves. Ever since the pandemic bit down on us last spring, housing prices have soared in defiance of all initial expectations here in Waterloo-Wellington. The latest report released by KWAR just this past Monday makes this...
